Potato Leaves "Petehteh Leaf"

Hello NCC readers! Hope you’re having a fab August bank holiday weekend and enjoying whatever activities you have lined up. Once again, thank you all for continuously checking out my blog and Facebook page your support is really appreciated.

Mouth watering Sweet Potato Leaves

In Sierra Leone our staple food is rice and we have this with a variety of greens we call “plasas”. “Plasas” are green leaf sauces cooked with assorted meat and smoked fish. Most of the green leaf dishes have a similar style of preparation however, I must add different indigenous tribes have their own style of cooking but all result to a delicious mouth watering end product. In this post, I decided to cook and blog about one of Sierra Leone’s hearty green dish sweet potato leaves “petehteh leaf" as it is known across Sierra Leone. This dish is a very delicious sauce full vitamins and iron that helps with the flow of oxgen in your blood. I hope you enjoy reading and hopefully get to try my own version of this recipe. Aprons on!!!

Serving for 4

part ingredients

Ingredients 

3 packs of already chopped sweet potato Leaves

200ml of Palm oil

Pack of Ogiri

Tin of Butter beans

4 table spoons Peanut butter (smooth)

Assorted meat of your choice

Smoked fish

Scotch bonnet pepper (to your taste)

2 medium sized Onions

Maggie seasoning (2 cubes)

Salt (to your taste)

3 okra

Directions

Chopped and washed potato leaves

Pot ready  to boil with meats and onion, pepper ogiri paste

1.       Start with washing then bringing your meat to boil until tender for approximately 30-40 minutes.

2.       Next wash the chopped potato leaves and leave it in a colander to drain any excess water.

3.       Next blend onions and scotch pepper with ogiri. This should look like a thick smooth paste.

4.       After the meat has boiled, add the above paste mixture and your meat in a medium sized cooking pot, add 2 pints of water and bring to boil for about 20 minutes.

5.       Whilst the pot boils, mix the peanut better with 50ml of water so it is slightly watery.

6.       Add peanut butter mixture, palm oil, maggie seasoning, and salt after the 20 minutes or until you have a thick soupy consistence.

7.       Then add the washed potato leaves with the smoked fish. Mix the pot and leave pot to boil for a further 15min in medium heat.

8.       Finally chop and crush okra and add to the boiling pot. Turn the heat low and let the sauce simmer for a further 5 min or until the palm oil is floating.

Voila! Dish is done! 

Tongue smiling dish

African Canapés

Hello Readers, hope you are all doing well. It’s been a busy summer and exciting things have been happening at Nina’s Cookery Corner. I did my first huge wedding gig in Vienna Austria, preparing and displaying a selection of African canapés for over 400 guests. I am really proud and happy this project went well and got excellent feedback not only from the client but also from guests and the prestigious Austrian catering company that catered for the three course wedding dinner.

Below are some pictures from the event and some African style canapé options.

Some of the recipes for the canapé options can be found on my blog by following the link below. http://ninascookerycorner.blogspot.co.uk/

Feast your eyes on the dishes and don’t forget to like share and comment.

Also, if you’re planning an event, dinner party and want the burden of cooking off your hands, why not let me be your super hero and cater to your needs. Enjoy reading try out the dishes and send me your feedback. Aprons on! 

Olehleh

Plain olehleh with spicy sauce

Gizzard stew and Plantain

Chicken Gizzard and Plantain. An NCC speciality

Akara

Akara and spicy garnished sauce.

Tasty Fish fritters that would make your tongue smile.

Fish Balls

Fishy Fishy Fish balls

Kibbeh with red pepper olive garnish

“Awojoh” Feasting

Spread of delicious West African party food

Hello Readers, it’s been awhile since my last post and I feel like I have neglected you guys. My apologies. I am sure you are all doing fantastic. So I did my first catering gig this weekend and it was a very good experience and I am happy I took up the challenge as it was an impromptu request and I was a bit hesitant to accept it.

I had a week to sort out shopping and prep for 4 main dishes and 3 accompaniments for about 100 guests. With the help of my amazing family and friends I pulled it off.

“Awojoh” - loosely translated, community feast to celebrate the life of the deceased.

In Sierra Leone, as a tradition, an Awojoh takes place after the 40^th day or the one year anniversary of a deceased person. The common dishes for this sort of occasion are “aborbor” (Black eyed beans stew) with fried plantain, sweet potato fried in palm oil, beans akara, olehleh, foofoo with a vareity of soups and palm oil fry stew. Some of the recipes of the above could be found by clicking here. 

Nina's Cookery Corner 

On this occasion however, most of the traditional dishes were not prepared as the client opted for the more common party dishes.
The menu was;

Jollof Rice

Fry Stew

Fried Rice

Rice Sticks (Vermicelli)

Pepper Chicken

Fried Plantain and

Akara

All the recipes for the above dishes can be found on my blog by following the link below. http://ninascookerycorner.blogspot.co.uk/

Feast your eyes on the dishes and hope you get to replicate them.

If you’re planning an event, dinner party and want the burden of cooking off your hands, why not let me be your super hero and cater to your needs. Enjoy reading try out the dishes and send me your feedback. Aprons on!

Spread of delicious West African party food

Kañiwa/“Foondae” with Grilled Chicken and Spinach Stew

Kaniwa/"Foondae" with Grilled Chicken and Spinach stew

Hello Readers! So last week, a friend sent me an article posted by Mail Online UK ranking countries with the best and worst diets. Sierra Leone was 2^nd on the table for the countries with the healthiest diets overall. The smile on my face, broaden like the Grinch’s smile with an exciting idea.

This week’s post was inspired by the Mail Online’s article; Kañiwa/“Foondae” with Grilled Chicken and Spinach Stew. I am convinced Kañiwa is “Foondae” – not sure about spelling). “Foondae”/ Kañiwa is used as a healthy substitute for rice in Sierra Leone. From my online research I learnt it is a cousin of quinoa, or some call it baby quinoa as it is a really tiny grain. Like quinoa, it is a "pseudo-cereal" with a high level of protein (15 to 19 percent) and a more complete balance of amino acids than most grains. (Source- http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/whole-grains-a-to-z)

Both of the main ingredients in this post are super healthy. Spinach is full of iron, protein, vitamins and minerals which are good for your vision, skin, and hair. I hope you enjoy reading and hopefully get to try out this recipe. Aprons on!!!

Serving for 4

Ingredients 

Ingredients

A pack of spinach
2 cups of Kañiwa grains
4 medium sized chicken thighs
2 medium sized onions
2 Scotch bonnet peppers
6 cherry tomatoes
50ml olive oil
Maggie seasoning
Chicken seasoning
Black and white, pepper
Teaspoon mixed herbs
1 tinned chopped
Tomato purée 

Cooking Instructions

Spinach Stew

Grilling chicken and cherry tomatoes

1.      Wash and season chicken with chicken seasoning, black and white, pepper

2.      Then grill chicken in a grill pan, 5 minutes on each side on medium heat.

3.      Grill cherry tomato as well 1min on each side and put aside with chicken as this would be used later to garnish the dish.

4.      Slice onions slices lengthwise.

5.       Pre-heat 50ml olive oil in a pot on medium heat.

6.      Then fry onions and chopped tinned tomatoes also adding a teaspoon of mixed herbs and tomato puree into the pot and fry in medium heat for 5 - 10 minutes or until tender

  7.      Put spinach in a big bowl and pour a kettle of hot water over it and leave it to cook by steam for 2 min.

  8.      Drain water from the bowl; using a colander getting rid of all excess water.

  9.      Then stir the drained spinach into the stew. Leave it to simmer in medium heat for about 5 min then add your grilled chicken to the stew.

  10.  Finally leave the stew to cook for further 5 min and your stew is ready.

Frying onions and chopped tomatoes

Spinach added to stew 

Dish Almost done

Kañiwa/“Foondae”

1.      Boil 700ml of water in a pot

2.      Wash “Foondae”/ Kañiwa and add to boiling water with a pinch of salt.

3.      Leave to cook in low heat for about 20 -25min checking it at 5 min intervals.

4.      Should you need to sprinkle a handful of water over the kañiwa if the grain are still uncooked. 

Kaniwa/"Foondae" with Grilled Chicken and Spinach stew

Akara Waffles (Valentine Treat)

Scrumptious Akara Waffle 

Happy Valentine’s day! So this week I decided to experiment on West Africa’s favourite dumpling “Akara” I tweaked the recipe by adding fresh milk and vanilla extract to make it into a dessert option. Topped with juicy strawberries and blueberries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the result was heavenly. Who would have thought aye?

Hope you get to try this recipe as it’s well scrumptious and yummy.

Aprons on!

Ingredients 

Makes 10-12 waffles

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of rice flour
2. 6  of extra ripe bananas
3. ½ cup whole or semi skimmed milk
4. 1Nutmeg
5. 1 extracted vanilla pod
6. ½ cup Sugar
7. 1 teaspoon baking powder
8. 30ml olive oil

Dry ingredients in mixing bowl

Cooking Instructions

1.      Peel bananas and blend until smooth and runny

2.      Add dry ingredients into mixing bowl and mix together.

3.      Then add wet ingredients into the same bowl and whisk vigorously together until smooth.

mixture in waffle maker

4.      Switch your waffle maker on and follow its instructions on how to use. Once it is hot pour the mixture into each section and let it cook until it ready (approximately 2 minutes for each batch)  

Yummy dessert

Shepherd’s Pie Sunday

Shepherd's Pie "Hachis Paramentier version"

Good evening Reader’s! Happy New Month! Comfort foods are guilty pleasure we can’t resist. The good old British Shepherd’s Pie is one hearty comfort food that I happily indulge in with no shame. With an African twist of seasoning (maggie cube, steak seasoning, black & white pepper and blended garlic and scotch bonnet pepper) and very hot spice, I used the French version “Hachis Paramentier” to prepare this tasty dish. This dish goes well with a glass of red wine. Hope you get to try out this recipe Aprons on!

Ingredients 

Ingredients

1. Pack of lean diced beef 450g
2. 4 medium potatoes
3. 2 carrots medium carrots
4. Handful of cherry tomato
5. 1 medium size onions
6. 4 cloves of garlic
7. 3 scotch peppers
8. Seasoning (maggie cube, steak seasoning, black & white pepper and blended garlic and scotch bonnet pepper) 
9. Olive Oil
10. Tomato puree
11. Tin of Evaporated
12. Block of mature cheddar cheese  
13. Chive for garnish

Serving for 4

Cooking Instructions

Carrots and potatoes about to be mashed

Mash

1. Peel potatoes and carrots
2. Chop into large sizes.
3. Boil carrots for 40 minutes and potatoes for 30 minutes
4. Once boiled put in a large bowl
5. Add 2 table spoons of evaporated milk (this will give the mash creamy fluffy consistency) and a pinch of salt. 

Sauté Beef

Stew

1.      Wash and season beef with seasoning mentioned above

2.      Slice onions sideways and cut cherry tomatoes in two

3.      Pour 30 ml olive oil into hot frying pan and heat to cooking temperature.

4.      Once oil is heated, add beef, onions and tomatoes and sauté for 10 minutes

5.      Added 2 squeezes of tomato puree, mix then leave to cook for a further 10 minutes in medium heat.

6.      Preheat oven at 180C degrees gas mark 4.

7.      Before serving sprinkle some grated cheese over the mash and put in the oven for 10 minutes or until slightly golden. 

Shepherd's Pie "Hachis Paramentier version"

Voila! Dish is done!